Boys basketball: Reading High defeats Bensalem (PHOTO GALLERY)

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"Next man up" has become a cliché in sports, but at Reading High it's part of the game plan.

Less than four minutes into their PIAA Tournament Class 6A boys basketball opener Saturday, Wesley Butler, the Red Knights' leading scorer, was on the bench with two fouls.

A few seconds later, senior guard Xavier Starks joined him after being poked in the eye.

To say their teammates barely flinched would be an understatement.

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The Red Knights acted as though they didn't notice as they pulled away from Bensalem for a 63-38 victory before a nearly full house at Gov. Mifflin Intermediate.

"We weren't concerned," junior forward Daniel Colter said of seeing Butler, the Berks Conference Player of the Year, spend more than 12 minutes of the first half on the bench. "If somebody gets in foul trouble, somebody else comes up and they're gonna get the job done."

Indeed, the Red Knights (25-4) are deep and balanced, and that showed as much as ever Saturday.

Colter, a first-year starter, scored 13 points - his second-highest total of the season.

Larry Wingo came off the bench to score 13 points and grab a game-high seven boards, much of it in relief of center Ricki Lopez, who picked up his second foul three minutes into the second quarter and his third foul midway through the third.

Bobby Heath took over for Butler, hit a layup in transition right away to push the early lead to 11-3, and played well defensively the rest of the way.

Starks returned to the game and finished with eight points and four rebounds.

"Bobby stepped in and did very well," said Reading coach Rick Perez, "Larry came in. Juan Mato."

No matter who Perez has on the floor, the parts seem to fit.

"We just play together," said Colter. "That's what we do best."

That, and play defense. The Knights do that especially well, as Central Bucks West - a 53-35 winner over Emmaus - will find out Wednesday in the second round.

The Knights limited the Fighting Owls (17-11) to 33 percent shooting and just 24 points through three quarters.

Senior guard Ward Roberts, an all-league player and 1,000-point scorer, managed just four points on 1-of-6 shooting.

Backcourt mate Taco Douglas scored six points on 2-of-8 shooting.

Neither knocked down a 3-pointer.

"We couldn't throw it in the ocean, but part of that was their defensive pressure," said Bensalem coach Mike McCabe. "They took away everything we tried to do. They got after us, and we had no answer."

McCabe was especially impressed with how hard the Red Knights played. As usual, they contested every shot, gave up no easy ones and used their physicality on the boards to come away with a whopping 31-16 advantage.

They allowed just four offensive rebounds.

"You've got to understand one thing," McCabe told his players, "these guys might not be big, like 6-4, but they get after the glass. And sure enough, they killed us on the glass. They're relentless."

Reading led just 25-22 before Colter took charge two minutes into the third quarter, scoring nine straight points.

He hit a short jumper, turned a scoop into a three-point play, scored in transition - off one of Butler's seven assists - and hit a 15-footer to make it 34-22.

Colter said he wasn't looking to score; the game just came to him.

"If the looks are there for Wesley, me, Ricki, anybody, we take it," he said.

Butler, who averages a team-leading 16 per game, didn't have a point three minutes into the final quarter yet his team still led by 18.

He got it going in hurry, cramming 11 points into a 3½ -minute burst.

It added up to a much easier first-round victory than a year ago, when the Red Knights trailed by nine points in the early going before beating North Penn 58-45.